The bird story of the summer is the story of the house finch. We have discovered that in the evening, just at dusk, we have a flock of house finches flying from all directions to roost for the night in our Sweet Gum tree on the side of the house. It starts off with a few birds flying in and progresses to a crescendo of birds flying in groups of 5-10 at a time. By the end of the evening, there are hundreds of house finches roosting in the tree for the night.
The process is reversed in the morning and starts at around 5 AM with the birdsong and then the departure for who knows where during the day.
It is an amazing story really…one that we have come to anticipate each evening as we sit on the deck.
We have not had any owls to observe yet this summer but we are going to jump at the chance if it comes along. Instead of an owl study, I have been keeping a list of our summer birds that frequent our yard. (You can find the Summer Owl Study here on the Handbook of Nature Study.)
Here is our list of birds that we have observed so far this summer.
Summer 2014 Bird List
- Scrub Jays – one morning we have five of them squawking at something in the front yard.
- Anna’s Hummingbirds – at least three of them at our feeder and then some in the backyard in the trumpet vine
- Titmouse – several in both the seed feeder and on the suet feeder
- Mourning doves – we hear them cooing every day
- Starlings – in the trees
- House finches – 100’s roosting in our tree
- Evening Grosbeak – pair, feeding in our fig tree and at the sunflower seed feeder
- Turkey Vulture – flying overhead
- California Quail – heard them but haven’t seen them
We have just hung a new thistle feeder in our front yard to hopefully attract some colorful goldfinches. So far, no takers. I am curious to see if they ever come and I will keep you posted.
I hope you are having a great summer of birdwatching!